TERENCE HILL
(born Mario Girotti; 29 March 1939) is of Italian and German descent and began as a child actor then went on to international stardom. During the height of his popularity Hill was one of Europe's highest-paid actors.

He starred in his first movie at age 12. Italian director Dino Risi searched for five boys for a movie called 'Vacanze col gangster' (1952), an adventure story in which the youngsters help a dangerous bandit to escape from prison and get into serious trouble. Terence landed a leading role. After appearing in 26 other movies, he appeared with Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon in Luchino Visconti's The Leopard (Il Gattopardo; 1963). In1964, he signed a contract to participate in four German 'Winnetou' movies, based on the novels by Karl May.

In 1967, he returned to Italy to star in God Forgives... I Don't! (Dio perdona... Io no!; 1968). His film Django, Prepare a Coffin was also shot in 1968, by director Ferdinando Baldi; it co-starred Horst Frank and George Eastman. That year he changed his name from Mario Girotti to Terence Hill as a publicity stunt by the film producers.

In the ensuing years, he starred in many action and Spaghetti Westerns, often co-starring with Bud Spencer. Their most famous film is Lo chiamavano Trinità (They Call Me Trinity; 1971); the sequel, Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità (Trinity Is Still My Name) was made the following year. In 1973, Hill co-starred with Henry Fonda in Il mio nome è Nessuno (My Name Is Nobody), directed by Sergio Leone.

In 1977, he starred in the American films Mr. Billion, with Jackie Gleason, and March or Die co-starring Gene Hackman, Catherine Denueve, and Max Von Sydow; and he made a home in Massachusetts.

In his later years, Hill went on to a successful television career in Italy, including the long-running lead and title role of Don Matteo (2000 - still in production), about an inspirational parish priest who assists the Carabinieri in solving crimes local to his community, a role for which Hill received an international "Outstanding Actor of the Year" award at the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo 42e (42nd Monte Carlo Television Festival).

In 2011 he concurrently appeared in a second television series for the Italian state television channel Rai Uno, entitled Un passo dal cielo (One Step from Heaven), playing a local chief of the foresters in the region of Alto Adige, the Italian Tyrol; it ran through 2015.

a recent photo

BUD SPENCER

(born Carlo Pedersoli; October 31, 1929) The popular, 6' 3.5", Italian actor starred in innumerable spaghetti Westerns and action-packed potboilers during the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Naples, he was the first Italian to swim the 100-meter freestyle in less than a minute; and competed as a swimmer on the Italian National Team at the Olympic Summer games in both Helsinki, Finland, in 1952 and Melbourne, Australia, in 1956. He was also an Olympic-class water polo player.

Although he had a degree in law, and has registered several patents, Spencer went into acting; his first movie role was in Quel fantasma di mio marito, an Italian comedy shot in 1949 and released in 1950. He then played a member of the Praetorian Guard in the U.S. production Quo Vadis, a film shot in Italy, in 1951. During the 1950s and part of the 1960s, Spencer appeared in many Italian films, but, he has said, his "career was strictly minor league until the late 1960s."

In a recent interview, Spencer commented: "Terence is like a brother to me, and like brothers we don't always agree, and he can be a pain in the neck sometimes." [laughs] "... our relationship I suppose is reflected in our movies, but he can always count on me as I can on him. We always enjoyed working together, probably why we made so many films together."

Among his films are Al di là della legge (Beyond the Law; 1968) with Lee Van Cleef, Un esercito di 5 uomini (Five Man Army: 1969) with Peter Graves, Dario Argento's 4 mosche di velluto grigio (Four Flies on Grey Velvet; 1971), and Una ragione per vivere e una per morire (A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die; 1972) with James Coburn and Telly Savalas. Spencer also wrote the complete or partial screenplay for some of his movies. His feature film career slowed down after 1983, and he turned his attention more toward television. From 1988 through 1993, he appeared in a series of action/drama tv-movies as the characters "Big Man" Jack Clementi and Jack "Extralarge" Costello.

He became a certified commercial airline and helicopter pilot after appearing in All the Way Boys (1972). In 1984, he established Mistral Air, an air-mail company that also transports pilgrims. He later sold it to Poste Italiane to buy a textile mill that produced clothes for children. He also supports many children's charities, including his own, the Spencer Scholarship Fund.

In 2005 Spencer entered politics, standing as regional councillor in Lazio for the center-right Forza Italia party. He became a politician specifically at the bequest of then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. According to Spencer, "In my life, I've done everything. There are only three things I haven't been - a ballet dancer, a jockey and a politician. Given that the first two jobs are out of the question, I'll throw myself into politics." However, he lost the seat; and Berlusconi's party was swept from power in 2006. In 2011, his autobiography was published by Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf.

Friday, April 29, 2016

PIERRE RICHARD (born Pierre-Richard Defays; August 16, 1934) is a popular French actor best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films. Richard is considered to be one of the greatest and most talented French comedians in the last 50 years. He is also a film director and occasional singer. He began performing in the Paris Music Halls and grew into a brilliant physical comedian. Graduating on to film, he became an international star with THE TALL BLOND MAN WITH ONE BLACK SHOE.

Richard was born in Valenciennes, Nord. He started his acting career at the theatre. He worked with Yves Robert on Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire and its sequel Le retour du grand blond; both these films were written by Francis Veber. Veber cast Richard while directing his own first feature film: Le Jouet. Veber and Richard had a long and successful partnership during the 1980s, highlighted by three comedies – La Chèvre, Les Compères and Les Fugitifs – which paired Richard with Gérard Depardieu. Richard again moved behind the camera to direct On peut toujours rêver (1991) and Droit dans le mur (1997).

Three months after the end of Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, Francois Perrin, the Tall Blond Man, (who has been living happily with his lover Christine in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is once again press-ganged into service. Chief of Counter-Espionage Colonel Toulouse has a new boss — the former Minister of Agriculture has become the Minister of Interior. Captain Cambrai (who has been investigating Colonel Milan's death and who is extremely suspicious of Toulouse's involvement) intercepts a letter written by Perrin to his best friend Maurice (who has recovered from his nervous breakdown of the previous film) in which Perrin assures Maurice that he (Maurice) is not crazy and that the events causing Maurice's breakdown actually happened. When Maurice refuses to testify against Toulouse, Cambrai comes up with another plan.

At Cambrai's urging, the new Minister wants to meet the supposed "super-agent." Toulouse, who can't let anybody know that the Tall Blond was really a civilian chosen at random, orders that Perrin be liquidated at once while informing the Minister and Cambrai that The Tall Blond was killed while on a mission. Attempts to assassinate Perrin in Rio are comically avoided or bungled and his funeral (held in France after an erroneously premature report of his death and with a coffin filled with sand) is likewise a comic failure; the Minister becomes increasingly confused by the conflicting reports and Cambrai, who had counted on the report of Perrin's death to get Maurice to testify, is equally stymied.

Eventually, Toulouse has Christine kidnapped and forces Perrin to return to Paris to act out the part of the supposed "super-spy" for the Minister. Cambrai is not fooled, however, and in two hilarious scenes Perrin is given embarrassing information from both Toulouse and Cambrai about each of them from their private files (Toulouse's mother had wanted a daughter and made him wear dresses as a child, causing the other boys to call him "Lollipop", and Cambrai [who acts tough and ruthless] wet his bed when he was young, really hates violence and had suffered an nervous breakdown while trying to interrogate a suspect). Toulouse orchestrates a plan to make Cambrai crack again, setting up a supposedly dangerous yet cleverly stage-managed and choreographed "mission" for The Tall Blond while he is being followed by Maurice and Cambrai (who will supposedly be unable to handle the "violence"); the plot seems to work, but then Cambrai learns that Perrin's gun (which Cambrai had used to shoot and "kill" an attacking thug) was really loaded with blanks.

Believing Cambrai finished (and after yet another attempt to kill Perrin comically fails), Toulouse orders Christine to be released, but when she, Toulouse and Perrache arrive at Perrin's apartment they find him in a compromising situation, in bed with his former lover Paulette (actually a set-up by Cambrai and Maurice). Rushing out in tears over Perrin's supposed faithlessness, Christine is met outside by Cambrai and Maurice. That night, at a symphony concert at which Perrin is performing and which Toulouse, Perrache, Cambrai, the Minister and two of Toulouse's men (who have been instructed to kill Perrin during the performance) are attending, Cambrai informs Toulouse that should anything happen to Perrin Maurice will testify, causing Toulouse to immediately call off his men. Christine appears again, in her usual dazzling clothes (a white backless dress, this time) and armed with a gun; she tries to shoot Francois on stage (in time to the music). Perrin is apparently killed and Maurice announces that he will testify. Toulouse, backed into a corner, attempts to take Christine hostage, but then Perrin rises up-Christine's gun was also loaded with blanks. Toulouse, exposed in public, accepts his defeat with good grace and is allowed by Cambrai to commit suicide to avoid prison and disgrace. Of course, Toulouse (unknown to everyone else) fakes his suicide, and he and Perrache make their escape. Cambrai gets punched out by Perrin and the film ends with Boy Getting Girl Back and Ending Happily Ever After- even though the Minister still has no idea what's going on.

Friday, April 15, 2016

BUD ABBOTT (born William Alexander Abbott on October 2, 1895 in Asbury Park, New Jersey) and LOU COSTELLO (born Louis Francis Cristillo on March 6, 1906 in Paterson, N.J.)

The two burlesque comedians first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge
Burlesque Theater on 42nd Street, NYC; while regulars on the Kate Smith
radio show (starting 1938), they gained fame in the Broadway review
"The Streets of Paris" (1939) headlined by Bobby Clark and Carmen
Miranda. Lured to Hollywood by Universal Studios in 1940 to co-star in
"One Night in the Tropics" starring Bob Cummings, they moved on to
starring in their next film, the comedy classic, BUCK PRIVATES (1941), a
military service comedy. Bud and Lou made 36 films together between 1940 and 1956. They were
among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during
World War II.

AFRICA SCREAMS (1949) directed by Charles Barton which parodied
the safari genre of the day (the title is a play on the title of the
1930 documentary Africa Speaks!) It was filmed from November 10 through
December 22, 1948 at the Nassour Studios in L.A.: and was was produced
by A & P heir Huntington Hartford. The film was the first one of the independently financed productions
that Abbott and Costello made while they were under contract with Universal, and it was released by United Artists. Africa Screams marked the first time that Abbott and Costello worked
with Hillary Brooke and Joe Besser; both actors would later become part
of the ensemble cast for the duo's television series The Abbott and
Costello Show. The film also marked the only time that Shemp Howard
and Joe Besser appeared together in a film; Besser would replace Howard
as one of the Three Stooges following the latter's death in 1955.

AFRICA SCREAMS

In 1951, they moved to television as rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour. (Eddie Cantor and Martin and Lewis were among the others.) Each show was a live hour of vaudeville in front of an audience, revitalizing the comedians' performances and giving their old routines a new sparkle.

THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR

For two seasons from late 1952 to early 1954, a filmed half-hour series,
The Abbott and Costello Show, appeared in syndication on local stations
across the United States. Loosely based on their radio series, the show
cast the duo as unemployed wastrels. One of the show's running gags
involved Abbott perpetually nagging Costello to get a job to pay their
rent, while Abbott barely lifted a finger in that direction. The show
featured Sidney Fields as the landlord of the rooming house in which
they lived, and Hillary Brooke as a friendly neighbor who sometimes got
involved in the pair's schemes. Other regulars were future Stooge Joe
Besser as Stinky, a whiny child in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit played
by the clearly adult Besser, Gordon Jones as Mike the cop, who always
lost patience with Lou, Joe Kirk (Costello's brother-in-law) as Mr.
Bacciagalupe, an Italian immigrant caricature whose role varied with the
requirements of the script, and Bobby Barber, who played many "extra"
parts

THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW

In 1966, Abbott voiced his character in a series of 156 five-minute Abbott and Costello cartoons made by Hanna-Barbera. Lou's character was voiced by Stan Irwin.

ABBOTT & COSTELLO

"Who's on First?" is Abbott and Costello's signature routine. (They, however, usually referred to it as "Baseball.") The sketch was based on other burlesque routines with similar wordplay. Depending upon the version, Abbott has either organized a new baseball team and the players have nicknames, or he points out the proliferation of nicknames in baseball (citing St. Louis Cardinals sibling pitchers Dizzy and Daffy Dean) before launching the routine. The infielders' nicknames are Who (first base), What (second base) and I Don't Know (third base). The longest version is seen in "The Actors' Home," an episode of their filmed TV series, in which "Who's on First?" constitutes the second half of the program. A live performance commemorating the opening day of the Lou Costello, Jr. Youth Foundation was recorded in 1947.

Friday, April 1, 2016

What's Up, Tiger Lily? is a 1966 comedy film directed by Woody Allen in his feature-length directorial debut. Allen took a Japanese spy film, International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi, 1965 Toho Co, Ltd.) starring Tatsuya Mihashi, Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama, and overdubbed it with completely original dialogue that had nothing to do with the plot of the original film. By putting in new scenes and rearranging the order of existing scenes, he completely changed the tone of the film from a James Bond clone into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe.

The plot provides the setup for a string of sight gags, puns, jokes based on Asian stereotypes, and general farce. The central plot involves the misadventures of secret agent Phil Moskowitz, hired by the Grand Exalted High Majah of Raspur ("a nonexistent but real-sounding country") to find a secret egg salad recipe that was stolen from him.

The movie has an ending unrelated to the plot, in which China Lee, a Playboy Playmate and then-wife of Allen's comic idol Mort Sahl, who does not appear elsewhere in the film, does a striptease while Allen explains that he promised he would put her in the film somewhere.

Friday, March 18, 2016

From 1958 to 1978 the Carry On films held up a mirror to
English society, its institutions and its rapid changes. National Service ended,
the National Health Service expanded rapidly, the sexual revolution
arrived, the country faced bouts of industrial strife and working-class
families started to holiday abroad.

SID JAMES

KENNETH WILLIAMS

CHARLES HAWTRY

KENNETH CONNOR

JOAN SIMS

HATTIE JACQUES

JIM DALE

PETER BUTTERWORTH

BERNARD BRESSLAW

BARBARA WINDSOR

The low-budget series was produced by Peter Rogers, directed by Gerald
Thomas, and written initially by Norman Hudis and later by Talbot
Rothwell. The other regulars include Terry Scott, Jack Douglas, David Lodge, Leslie Phillips, Patsy Rowlands- and guest star leads by Frankie Howerd, Eric Barker, Harry H. Corbett,
Bernard Cribbins, Angela Douglas, Shirley Eaton, Liz Fraser, Dilys Laye, Valerie Leon, Bob Monkhouse, Cecil Parker, Jacki Piper, Norman Rossington, Wilfred Hype-White, June Whitfield, plus German Elke
Sommer and American vaudeville, burlesque and television legend Phil
Silvers. The films were loose plotted and gag filled; they were
basically send
ups of two types: 01. institutions and genres, and 02. historic periods
and figures.

Carry On also produced 4 hugely popular record-breaking Christmas
specials for tv- their debut broadcast in 1969, 1970, 1972 and 1973; and
a 13 episode anthology series in 1975. Over the years, the major (and
in later shows- remaining) cast toured the regions with stage revue
shows all in the comic tradition of the music halls and seaside
postcards. The nudge-nudge-wink-wink later gave way to more explicit
gags- many featuring nudity- frequently by flaming Williams and sexpot
Windsor. The last in the series' long run took off on the X-rated
Emmanuelle (1974) earning a R-rating.

living on borrowed time...

I recently returned to school; as of yet I don't have a major, but I
have had a lot of minors...
I was accused of "statutory rape," but my lawyer got the charge reduced
to "unlawful entry"...
He argued, how can you call it "rape" if she was already dead?...
When found in a skid row motel with a missing girl's corpse in the bed,
it's best to tell the authorities that the room was like that when you
checked in...
As an international superstar I try to set an example by giving back to
the world and consider my trolling tween chatrooms for confused and
lonely girls with daddy-issues a vocation...
I formed a charity to help promiscuous teenage girls- get their start...
I'm single, but "carried a torch" for my ex just long enough to set fire
to her new boyfriend's car...
I don't regret one day of our relationship- it was a Thursday...
I want a real skinny girl; not because I think it's sexy, but it's
likely she'll have poor self-esteem or a drug problem (those chicks'll
do anything!)...
However, I am a sucker for big tits...
My dream is to settle down with a woman with whom I can have a child she
wont try to drown...